In retrospect, I kind of wish I’d read _Letters to Tiptree_ (which is GREAT) in different order. First, I wish I’d re-read _Her Smoke Rose Up Forever_. (Yes, this is an entirely different book.) Then the utterly fabulous Le Guin and Russ letters (which appear more than halfway through the book), and the Le Guin intro. Finally, the other writers’ letters to Tiptree. I think I would have gotten more out of them all that way — as it was, my fading memory of reading many of Tiptree’s stories more than a decade ago wasn’t really up to the task.
Relatedly, I am only having a minor mid-life / existential crisis over here, as I try to figure out what to do with the next twenty years of my life, don’t mind me.
“One of our (writers’) problems is that we can’t measure out lives by ordinary standards: Successful Children, Nice House, etc. – even if we have these, we’re so apt to measure everything sub specie aeternitatis (sp?) that nothing is unequivocally O.K. Which feeds all sorts of despair.”
– Joanna Russ to James Tiptree, Jr., _Letters to Tiptree_
(Thankfully, I am not generally subject to despair, so I continue pretty cheerful in the midst of my confusion…)